I don't really know how to describe the workouts I've completed over the past week. Is there a word for "short, easy and yet somehow exhausting?" No, not Snooki. I'm looking for something else. Anyway, because I am supposed to keep workouts to a minimum and keep my heart rate low (just until my iron levels head back up!) I have been running very little, walking a little more and taking plenty of rest days. I can't say I mind it, but it makes blogging less than fantastic.
Anyway, since my life involves an atypical amount of naps at the moment, I figured I would quickly talk about something I get a lot of questions about - where the heck am I from? This is the abridged version, since I'm guessing you guys have somewhere to be. No? Just as bored and sad as me? Cool.
I was born in South Africa. My parents had a cabbage farm of some kind. It was weird. It was my first experience being the privileged white girl - relative, of course, to the people who lived around us. We had Xhosa maids, farm hands and nannies who lived in huts next door. They taught me to click my words like the best of them. A big part of me is glad I didn't spend my entire childhood in that setting - it's odd.
Hawaii! Learned that I was bad at both surfing and hula dancing. Lived on a coffee farm. Lived on a ranch. Had llamas, buffalo and a zorse (half zebra/half horse) named Zeb. Spent ten years wishing I could leave because it was boring. Once I left, I spent ten years wishing I could go back because it was awesome.
Germany: I moved here for my final year of high school with my family. I was lost and confused for months and then at some point, the language finally made sense to me. The town I lived in - Herzogenaurach - sounded like the noise you make when you sneeze.
Pennsylvania: While my family was in Germany, I decided I needed to go to an American school for college. I chose a private Christian campus where there was a real rule called "four feet on the floor" to prevent couples from getting too cozy. Mind you, the opposite sex still had to sign in, leave the lights on and have the door wide open. Wild times, wild times.
England: Does this even count? While I went to England a lot growing up to see my family (my mom is English) I did actually live there for a few months when I was 17. I worked and lived with my grandparents for a summer after my freshman year of college. It's cold there in the winter. Boo. They mix beer with 7-up, yay!
New Jersey: I rounded out my college career in New Jersey. It was a dumb move. I regret it. Let's move on since you guys probably know all about Jersey already.
Hong Kong: My family moved to Hong Kong and I wanted to hang out with them one summer. I accidentally stayed for four years. It's a cool place, Hong Kong. It's also exhausting. Like, going to the grocery store is exhausting. In case you think everything was high rise buildings made of platinum, here's the entrance to our flat right before we moved to Georgia:
Georgia: We googled "cheap land in America". Georgia came up. We bookmarked some land because it had a pond and Tim likes fish. We flew to Georgia, bought said land and then got married in HK to make it official. We've been here ever since!
Anyway, since my life involves an atypical amount of naps at the moment, I figured I would quickly talk about something I get a lot of questions about - where the heck am I from? This is the abridged version, since I'm guessing you guys have somewhere to be. No? Just as bored and sad as me? Cool.
I was born in South Africa. My parents had a cabbage farm of some kind. It was weird. It was my first experience being the privileged white girl - relative, of course, to the people who lived around us. We had Xhosa maids, farm hands and nannies who lived in huts next door. They taught me to click my words like the best of them. A big part of me is glad I didn't spend my entire childhood in that setting - it's odd.
Hawaii! Learned that I was bad at both surfing and hula dancing. Lived on a coffee farm. Lived on a ranch. Had llamas, buffalo and a zorse (half zebra/half horse) named Zeb. Spent ten years wishing I could leave because it was boring. Once I left, I spent ten years wishing I could go back because it was awesome.
 |
| Some of the buffalo from the ranch |
 |
| Hated these llamas with a passion |
Germany: I moved here for my final year of high school with my family. I was lost and confused for months and then at some point, the language finally made sense to me. The town I lived in - Herzogenaurach - sounded like the noise you make when you sneeze.
Pennsylvania: While my family was in Germany, I decided I needed to go to an American school for college. I chose a private Christian campus where there was a real rule called "four feet on the floor" to prevent couples from getting too cozy. Mind you, the opposite sex still had to sign in, leave the lights on and have the door wide open. Wild times, wild times.
England: Does this even count? While I went to England a lot growing up to see my family (my mom is English) I did actually live there for a few months when I was 17. I worked and lived with my grandparents for a summer after my freshman year of college. It's cold there in the winter. Boo. They mix beer with 7-up, yay!
 |
| Best Summer Drink = Shandy. Half lager, half sprite. |
New Jersey: I rounded out my college career in New Jersey. It was a dumb move. I regret it. Let's move on since you guys probably know all about Jersey already.
Hong Kong: My family moved to Hong Kong and I wanted to hang out with them one summer. I accidentally stayed for four years. It's a cool place, Hong Kong. It's also exhausting. Like, going to the grocery store is exhausting. In case you think everything was high rise buildings made of platinum, here's the entrance to our flat right before we moved to Georgia:
 |
| I don't even want to tell you how much rent at this place was. Far too much for a fifth floor walk up above a temple that burned incense all day long. |
Georgia: We googled "cheap land in America". Georgia came up. We bookmarked some land because it had a pond and Tim likes fish. We flew to Georgia, bought said land and then got married in HK to make it official. We've been here ever since!
So, to recap....born in Africa, bad at surfing, no sexy times in college, tea and crumpets, Jersey sucks and Hong Kong makes me tired. Got it?
Have you moved around a lot in your life?
I suppose so. Initially just because of my parents, but now I actually get bored of places pretty quickly and like to move on.
Would you like to stay where you live for a while or move somewhere new? What's your dream destination and your practical destination?
Lately for some reason I've been dreaming of moving to the Middle East. In a safe place like Oman or Dubai. Just because it's somewhere I don't know much about and would like to learn. Practical destination - for some reason I want to live in Austin. No idea why and I've never even been there.
I've always wanted to settle down in the SF Bay area. DYING to move there. Stuck for the time being in NYC. Dying to leave.
ReplyDeleteI have to comment because I live in Austin now, and it's great. :) It looks a lot different than your cheap Georgian paradise though! There's not much for cheap land, but there's probably a little fishing? There are fantastic places to run and an awesome, vibrant, young and healthy population. I highly recommend it.
ReplyDeleteCompared to you, I haven't moved much at all. Compared to people from my home town I'm a globetrotter. (Sturgis, South Dakota- dare you to google it!)
I grew up in Sturgis, went to undergrad 7 hours away at a state school, but then decided that Austin, TX, would be a fantastic place to spend the next 5 years of my life for graduate school. I was right about Austin; grad school on the other hand...
Oh, and I'd love to live either in Northern California or Southern Oregon. Wine country has been calling my name...loudly. Or maybe that's just a side effect of graduate school?
DeleteThat is a fantastic childhood. What a ton of experiences!
ReplyDeleteMy siblings went to a super strict Christian college that I HATED every time I visited them. It was cheap and I could have gotten a scholarship, but I said no thanks! It was so depressing to me the way no one ever seemed happy!
I grew up in Ohio, born and raised! I stayed in the same house growing up until I was 15 and my Gram's sold it. Then we moved into a smaller place, I graduated at 17 and that summer took a vacation to visit my cousin in..GA!! LOL I met my then boyfriend, now husband and never went back. Since then, we have moved into lots of different houses, apartments, the like and then the summer of 2005 (when I was pregnant with Little Man) we got orders to WA. We have been here since 2006 and are currently awaiting orders to leave. I can't be stationed overseas because even after booster shots, I have ZERO immunity to measles and apparently most European countries don't vaccinate against it. So here we are. We had embassy duty to Russia (Moscow) but those were yanked because of my non-immunity and it sucks that its now in our record so we have no change of ever being stationed overseas :( Course he could get remote orders and be sent overseas BUT I'd rather he stay home!!
ReplyDeleteOH and we'd love to retire in Colorado. Its actually where we hope to go next so fingers crossed for us!
DeleteMove to Los Angeles. Nothing here is cheap. But it's still pretty swell.
ReplyDeleteWow girl you have moved around quite a bit but I think it's great how you have been able to experience so many different places and cultures. I was born in Southern California and have lived here all of my life. I am so accustomed to living in this general area that I don't think that I could easily adjust anywhere else. I would love to travel more for the experience for sure though. There are definitely a lot of places that I would love to visit. Your home is gorgeous by the way. I love the location!
ReplyDeleteWow, you've lived in so many places. That's so cool, I've never even been out of the country, hell, i've never even been to the west coast!
ReplyDeleteWow, very interesting, you've covered lots of ground! My moves around the eastern part of the US are rather boring. I think I want to stay put for awhile now!
ReplyDeleteWashingtonian born and raised. I lived through 5th grade in a Seattle suburb and then moved East of the mountains to the armpit of the state. After I graduated from high school I quickly returned back to Seattle and went to the University of WA. I met my hubby. We graduated, got married, moved into a few apartments, got pregnant, moved in with his parents. Finally, we left Seattle and drove across country with our teething 9 month old son. We lived in Pleasant Valley, NY for two years while hubby went to culinary school in Hyde Park. We did move home in the middle of that time so Hubby could do externship at a restaurant in Seattle. He was there for 6 months, baby and I stayed for 10 months so I could have #2 boy at home with my family around to help. Went back to NY when #2 was 6 weeks old. Hubby graduated from the CIA, got a job, we moved to Calistoga, CA so hubby could do management training program. Hubby finished mgmt training and was assigned a restaurant in the ATL. We moved to Marietta, GA and have been here ever since. When we moved here my babies (ages 3 & 1) had lived in 4 states. It is good to be settled!
ReplyDeleteYou fail at picking colleges. You need to go back and redo that whole experience. Tell your husband that you'll see him in 4 years. You need to whore it out like everyone else their freshman year.
ReplyDeleteI have lived lots of places, in Canada and the U.S. and travelled a lot.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine really living anywhere but Canada for lots of reasons.
I love to travel but I kiss the Canadian soil whenever we come home.
You are like a celebrity to me right now. My mother still lives in the same house she brought me home from the hospital in, I went to college 45 minutes away (granted, sexy times ran rampant) and my big life altering move was 400 miles away to Baltimore. I want to hear all about living in all those places. You are so glamorous. I do agree with Kara though that you missed out on the whoring it up.
ReplyDeleteyou have such an interesting life!!!....so wait....where did you meet Tim along the way? I haven't moved too much but I have lived in Argentina and Spain for short stints, moved to San Francisco after graduation and then settled in Portland 30 min away from where i grew up. I actually LOVE Portland so much that I'm not planning on moving! But I will travel a ton:)
ReplyDeleteI would love to live everywhere you have but the husband is in the music biz so we're stuck in Los Angeles for awhile. We do dream of moving to another music heavy city someday. Perhaps Nashville, Austin or Seattle might work.
ReplyDeleteWhat an exciting life!! I have never lived anywhere but Toronto. I would LOVE to experience living somewhere in the US...anywhere!! Apparently the school system is way different there though and teachers get paid like half of what we get paid here...so I don't know if it would be worth it...unless I moved and tried out some other kind of career! If that didn't matter I would want to try living in Hawaii without a doubt. I loved it there. NYC is tempting too! If I were to move within Canada, I would choose Vancouver, British Columbia. I have heard it's so beautiful with lots of mountains, water, and a lot of active people!!
ReplyDeleteI was born in CA, but my parents moved before I was 1 to WA. I have lived here ever since. While I have lived all over the Western Part of the state I would love to leave it forever!
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun post! My life is WAAAAAY boring compared to yours. Born & raised in Oregon. Moved to Utah for college (hated it). Moved back to Oregon and finished college. Moved to Montana. BO-RING. I haven't even traveled outside of the country, but I have been back east. That's about as exciting as it gets for me. Someday I'd like to go to Australia :)
ReplyDeleteWell I was born in Charlotte, NC, went to school in Charlotte, NC and still live in Charlotte, NC. Does it count that I have lived in South Charlotte, West Charlotte and North Charlotte? lol
ReplyDeleteWhere in NJ did you go to school?
ReplyDeleteRutgers in New Brunswick!
DeleteThis is awesome! I really lived most of my life in Puerto Rico until I was 20, and my parents moved to Venezuela (my dad worked in an oil company). Then I came to the US, followed by Germany (Heidelberg) where I lived for 5 years, then back to the U.S., then Kuwait, then back to the US. And all for business (although some pleasure was thrown in :)
ReplyDeleteMaria
The Fitness Girl Kitchen
Whoa this is so cool, so what did your parents do? I know, you don't have to answer that. I am sure you get asked that question a lot too. I have lived in Colorado, Minnesota, small time in California, Utah, Georgia and now NYC! I would love to have a house in Savannah and just travel around the world and see new places. Then I could always come back to my house in good ole Savannah!
ReplyDeleteSo were your parents in the army? What gives? Or just adventurous? I grew up in Northern California and have lived here most of my life. However, I have traveled around the world several times for a year at a time and I would say South Africa was one of my favorites! I also loved New Zealand, Chili, Bolivia, Nepal and Indonesia...as well as others, but just to name a few. I lived in Turkey; you should go live there. It's safe. Georgia. Huh. I have been to Georgia. Do you fit in there?
ReplyDeleteI lived in the same house until I graduated from college and then moved across the country to the DC area where I stayed for 9 years. Then I married my husband and in the past three years we've lived in three different cities in two different countries, and this trend will continue every two or three years for the next 15 years or so thanks to his job. I don't like change, so this lifestyle is really difficult for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm pregnant with my first baby and I was so bummed that she'd have such a boring birthplace on her birth certificate (I'm staying with my family in UT until my baby is 3 months and we return to Africa), until I realized that she'll live in lots of cool places as she grows up.
First, your writing is so entertaining. Aside from your life being fascinating your delivery is excellent.
ReplyDeletePersonally I have not moved much. Born and raised in Northern California, had no sexy times in college either at a religious university in Southern Idaho and now reside in Northern Utah (where the land is also cheap). My husband did live in Georgia for two years though, but other than that he and I have yet to see the world.
Haha I love that you're thinking of moving and not done with your house. But you should totally come to Texas, I'll be your friend! ....or go somewhere bizarre, I'll still stalk you blog and hit you up for a free place to stay
ReplyDeleteYou're like a nomad. I like how you pick places on a whim and move across the world. I like your style.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in the same place all my life. I have traveled a lot of the US and Canada and caribbean but that is about it. I really want to get to Europe eventually.
ReplyDeleteNot much moving here either. Born in Florida, lived there through middle school, then moved to Georgia to the town where my mother was born and raised (my grandparents were getting to be in poor health). I graduated from HS there, went to college there (lived on campus, though, not at home), then moved to Atlanta.
ReplyDeleteNow we live in a small city just east of Atlanta, called Decatur, and it is awesome. There is nowhere else in Georgia I would live. It's a great, diverse, mix of folks. In the immediate area is Agnes Scott College, Georgia State Univ., and Emory/CDC, so we have a highly educated population. There's lots to do and the city govt is extremely responsive. My kids are 13 and 9. I often wonder if when they are grown they will realize what a fantastic place their hometown is. It's a completely different experience from what a suburban child would have. We walk and bike everywhere, it's a small down with a city feel, and the schools are pretty great. So, in short, we aren't going anywhere. We love to travel, but there is no place like our home town.
I've always wanted to know the specifics of where you've lived. You have done so much traveling- I'm pretty jealous! Thank you for taking the time to write this all out... it really is so cool!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of a zorse before - crazy! I've moved around some, but all within the US…except for studying abroad….I don't mind it so much. I doubt AR is our final resting spot, so I would expect one more big move.
ReplyDeleteAnd your Snookie comment was awesome!
You are hilarious. That Snooki comment made my day! It sounds like you have seen/lived some awesome places.. How cool. I grew up in Oklahoma, Indiana for college and now live in Texas. Austin is AWESOME. San Antonio is also very very cool. My dream destination is northern India/Nepal.. I just got back from a huge India trip and am dying to go back ASAP. Practical destination I suppose would be somewhere in the Carolinas with family, mountains, beach, 4 seasons and FOOD all within reach.
ReplyDeletewow. you have been EVERYWHERE. compared to me at least. :) i barely left AL during my childhood. i guess that’s why i have my 50 states goal and love to travel. you’ve had some really cool experiences. doesn’t sound like GA will forever you be your home...
ReplyDeleteWow! I've lived in the same City and State my whole life, with the exception of when I went ot Undergrad an hour away from where I live. And you know what, I can't imagine moving away. All of my friends and my immediate family are in Richmond, VA, and to me, that's what really makes a place home. It must be so different, though, to grow up all over.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a really cool life though!! I moved around a lot too but nothing exciting like that. Born in Texas, moved to Illinois and grew up there (lived in 4 different places there), went to Mississippi for college, moved to Massachusetts for grad school and I currently live in Rhode Island. I've moved tons of times living out here.
ReplyDeleteThat's impressive! I've lived in this one state my entire life and for a long time I thought I wanted to move away but I hate the cold so that takes out a lot of states, eliminate the desert because I love trees, and that really only leaves me with a few options. In all honestly Huntsville/Madison doesn't even feel like Alabama so in some ways I do feel like I live in a different state.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the internet. I love that a google search moved you across the world. Why are you the coolest person ever? Wait, I'll just google it. HA.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post!
ReplyDeleteMy record... born in RI, moved to Phoenix, San Diego, Pensacola. (Plus pseudo "lived" in Seattle by association -- Hubby went to grad school there while we were dating, so I spent every free weekend in Washington).
Unfortunately no foreign homes for me (yet) but I do tend to change apartments/zip cods every 2-3 years even when I stay in the same metro area.
wow, u put me to SHAME!! i only moved i think three or four times total...i suck. i am woefully untraveled and wish i could see more sights. would u like to donate to the 'cait needs to travel the world fund'?? ;)
ReplyDeleteI want to see this zorse...that is tripping me out.
ReplyDeleteWhat a variety of places! I grew up in Berkeley, CA. We lived there my whole growing up but seemed to move from one house to the next every 3-4 years. I went to college on the East Coast and then stayed for another 8 yrs before moving back to the SF Bay Area. I love it here. And I extra love raising my family here.
I am retired military, and have moved my whoe life! It sure is tough!
ReplyDeleteI was in the same small town in Georgia for the first 20 years of my life, then lived in Sierra Vista, AZ for a couple months before coming to South Korea. Now we are heading back to that small town in Georgia next month and I can't wait! :D
ReplyDeleteWow! You have lived in some serious cool places. I've lived on Vancouver Island for all but about 4 years of my life.
ReplyDeleteWow, you moved around a LOT! I grew up in the same house age 0-18, then moved to college, then to another college, then to an apt, then to the house.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't wait to leave my home area and now I just wish I could go back, but there's not a lot of jobs other than farming or working for a couple corporations that do shutdowns /layoffs too often for regular people.